


No News is Good News

by ThinkingCAPSLOCK



Category: Aldnoah.Zero (Anime)
Genre: Character Study, Drabble, F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-08-28
Updated: 2014-08-28
Packaged: 2018-02-15 02:30:56
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 405
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2212419
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ThinkingCAPSLOCK/pseuds/ThinkingCAPSLOCK
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>but he's heard the news by now.</p>
            </blockquote>





	No News is Good News

**Author's Note:**

> A drabble of Slaine's reaction to Asseylum's "death" at the start of the show.

The news sticks to Slaine's boots, claws at his clothes, and hovers over his head as he walks down the narrowing hallways. His body shifts on instinct. One foot, the next. Heavy and painful steps, his body dragging down. Slaine finds it an effort to even blink, to breathe. To keep his composure until that final turn into his small chambers.

The Princess. 

His knees buckle at the thought of her, his body dead weight slamming into the ground. A wave of pain comes up through an old bruise on his back. Slaine focuses his mind on it, but her face floats forward and refuses to let go. 

The news creeps up his folded legs, its cold tendrils threading into his heart.

The Princess is dead.

He knew her ideals, he knew why she wanted this, why she left and why she longed for peace - he knew more than anyone else. Slaine had been the one who stayed up late as she practiced speeches. Slaine had been the one to help her posture and guide her through halls. Slaine had been the one to tell her every detail about his home, answering every question he could.

He should have been with her then too. Stopped her. Done anything.

The necklace had been meaningless. Slaine had been a fool to think it could protect her, to believe the stories about its powers. He should have damned the rules, damned the military, damned everything in his life to follow her. And save her. 

When he notices the tears, they aren't as hot or as painful as he expects. He touches his cheek, wiping liquid across his glove, a streaked stain of darkness and moisture. A flicker of a thought about how he's ruined them flashes through his mind, and then immediately turns to rage. 

What did a damn glove matter to him when he couldn't save her?

With a single movement, he rips off the gloves and slams his fists into the ground. The tears stream down his face, pooling beneath him, small pockets of his sorrow staining the floor. He punches until his knuckles bleed, until he can no longer see, until he loses energy and slumps forwards until his face rests in the damp pool of his tears.

Slaine lies there, unmoving. A sob bubbles from between his lips. 

What good is he now if couldn't protect the only thing that mattered in his life?


End file.
